


Horror in the Heartland (Is Not What It Used to Be)

by Anonymous



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Documentation, Gen, Post-Season/Series 03, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:55:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22403752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The people streaming to Hawkins in the aftermath of the Starcourt disaster are annoying. Newshounds, conspiracy theorists, and weirdos all around.Is it ridiculous to use the newly discovered ability to time travel to bug them? Yes. Is that going to stop the Scoops Troop? Hand over the stink bombs and planted evidence.
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson & Erica Sinclair, Scoops Troop & Scoops Troop (Stranger Things)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019, anonymous





	Horror in the Heartland (Is Not What It Used to Be)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



* * *

  
  
INDIANA'S SATANIC CULTS TARGETING CHILDREN?  
Appearances hide things worse than they seemed in newly infamous HAWKINS, INDIANA. Mass death blamed on an explosion at the mall could be part of something more sinister. **Frank Avery** reports.

"NO COMMENT."  
Should these words come from the mouth of a child that is to all appearances not yet over the age of ten? It is difficult to convey the ice in her voice in print. The disdain that one expects from a source older, more cunning...  
The little girl, sweet though she seems at first glance, is a clear victim at a second one. Sitting out in the open, haunted air of her shattered town, eating an ice cream, she pages through a thick manual beyond her years. _Dungeons and Dragons_.  
Discerning readers will know the weight of what this means. The poor, lost little soul, however, does not.  
"It is a game, you moron." This is the least of the foul language from the child's mouth.  
The very, very least.

15Aug85

> Gossip is paying off fast. (LILITH) Some people really eager to talk - older ones as usual are reliable targets, lonely. (LILITH) Steering clear of that s.o.b. Fred "FRANK" Avery is same pain as always but now I know to keep an eye out for his next article. (LILITH) But seriously, why he thinks fudging his name makes him sound more trustworthy... Ugh. (LILITH) Slightly unusual sources: Practically a contingent of local farmers antsy about neighboring properties (LILITH) More of them than seem usual are hanging about in town and at the bars. **L** Talk about how first it was neighbours getting "encouraged" off properties **I** now there are vans **L** driving all over land supposed to be empty **I** Trucks too **T** Building or **H** breaking something?  
>  Getting good loot from the empty houses. (LILITH) The police force lost drive, small to start with. (LILITH) Purses and safes full of money, won't even have to fence until next few  
>  **Idea:** Target police station! All sorts of information there andLILITH maybe decent impound stuff, (LILITH) Flo already likes me and that couldn't hurt!  
> 

WITNESSES TO MALL EXPLOSION MIGHT BE UNCOVERED

Nonetheless, our exclusive contact at the hospital remains deeply concerned about the nature of the bio-hazardous material still being disposed of from the blast. Our source strongly feels that it might be time for the leaders of the town – perhaps even the country – to release the names of all those who were present at Starcourt Mall on the night of the explosion. And if they don't, a concerned citizen might have to. – STAFF REPORTER

_The count of missing people has, after significant delay, been confirmed to be more than forty. Shirley Jacobson, our reporter on the ground, has word from some of the shocked and grieving residents._

_"My neighbours, here to the right--the Holloways. They're all gone, just like that. And I swear, there was a night we had such a rainstorm, but they had a couple of pretty unusual visitors ... I saw some people going in as I was closing the curtains, and it was just kids, it looked like kids ... but I can't help wondering if they had anything to do with it."_

_"My poor boy - nothing was wrong, and suddenly ... everything was. He left, and never came back ... and his baby brother thinks it's his fault..."_  
_"We don't know what came over Adam. And those who make insinuations on the matter--there are some neighbours I won't have another word to say anything to. It's a shame it's come to that when so many are gone, but there it is."_

_"He was a promising sportsman. Baseball, basketball... A responsible big brother, finally. I don't mind saying it took a while - the kid could be a hellion! - but we were finally a family."_  
_"--I only mean_ not that! _Max, oh my God--" "Don't do it! C'mon--" "--but that could--! Mike..." "WHAT?" "WHAT?"_  
_"Why is it anyone else's business? Quit bothering people! All you reporters and whatever are just making everybody feel worse by opening up old wounds!"_  
_"Like you're doing this out of concern? It's just so everyone can pretend to be sad for five seconds and carry on like normal! Oh, it's just the evening news again! You are busy_ exploiting _\--"_

* * *

  
  
"I found something," said Nancy.

"And I, uh, helped double-check it," said Will.

Both had their ways of making things seem important without a lot needing to be said. Hugely important, big like their dark, haunted eyes. Their friends and fellow fighters hadn't exactly been relaxing where they sat on the grass outside the Harrington home to start with - the calls to this meet-up had gone out too urgently. Now everyone sat up straighter.

"Shit ... do we have to kill something?" Steve said, then leaned over to address Robin, who'd abruptly stopped snacking on potato chips in the armchair she'd got him to help carry outside. "That's Nancy's ... look. Oh man. We're definitely going to have to kill something again."

"I have a look?" Nancy said, uncrossing her arms in surprise.

"Oh yeah. But that just took it down by, like, a quarter. I mean, it also helps that it's too hot for a jacket so I know you probably don't have a gun hidden anywhere. Right now."

The Party went to cluster around Will, the boys shooting glances at the woods bordering the back of the Harringtons' property while Max was just watching Will carefully.

"What is it now, buddy?" Dustin murmured as Mike rubbed Will's back. Lucas patted him on the shoulder and made an assessment of both him and Nancy.

" _Is_ it in the woods? Whatever you saw?" he asked. "Is that why you wanted us all to come to Steve's house - as a point of entry that other people won't see that easily?"

"The woods is where the Demogorgon was walking around a lot, right, that first time?" Max asked. "And is that where Jonathan is, instead of also being at this meeting?"

Will nodded, and then he and Nancy explained it all. After the Fourth of July, Nancy had been determined not to get caught off guard again by the Upside Down. With nothing overtly wrong, she'd patrolled the woods where she and Jonathan had encountered the Demogorgon.

And now, the woods were strange in a different way than they'd got used to. El and Jonathan were keeping an eye on it, though it was difficult - the problem kept moving, and wasn't the easy to spot in the first place. Like something drifting along with the wind, or maybe in a current, Will guessed. There were thin patches in the air. In the world.

Will had stepped through because the feel of it was so different from the Upside Down that he'd thought he would be safe, and El had run in when he'd faded from sight, though he'd waved first to show things were okay. They'd walked on together, and found that they'd gone into the past.

"We were like ghosts, and everything was sort of fuzzy, like it was all covered in a heat haze even from close up. It was hard to touch anything, and took forever before we could move something. But I got to Castle Byers, and could see it was the way it used to look. Before last month, before everything happened. So we both tested how far we could get, what we could do, and El, um. She went to see Hopper. He couldn't hear or see us - nobody we tried to reach could. And ... so we just walked back to the woods, and found a place where we could see Nancy waiting."

The group exclaimed or went silent. It was too easy to imagine the grimness of that discovery.

"Fine!" Max said, loudly enough to make everyone jump. She was staring ferociously to the side, eyes on Steve's house and in a definite way not on the woods, not on her friends. "We can't do any weird time travel stuff. That ... that's not bad. There won't be any unforeseen consequences and stupid time travel mistakes. But I still want to see it."

"Max is right," Mike said. "Investigating the whole thing is fine. But this isn't exactly the kind of thing we should play around with. Right, guys? If we make the wrong kind of difference in the past ... everything could get messed up! We wouldn't be able to predict the changes that come from any action. Even if it looks like the right one. Maybe that's why we're only like ghosts in the past in the first place."

It took discussion and yelling, but everyone came around. Partially the arguments ended because thoughts of people who'd died were lingering, and the fact that it was still impossible to save them was a weight. Soon enough they all went into the woods to find the In-Between.

* * *

  
  
DRAGONS IN INDIANA!  
Appearances hide things worse than they seemed in newly infamous HAWKINS, INDIANA. Mass death blamed on an explosion at the mall could be part of something more sinister. **Frank Avery** reports.

In the photograph accompanying this article, you can see what few have lived to see: a monster.  
This snapshot was left in the care of your faitful reporter by a source that insists on remaining anonymous. The details of where precisely the photograph was taken have also been obscured – but the creature lurking near this apparent suburban home could almost not be clearer ...

15Aug85

> # BOO
> 
> Yeah, seriously.  
>  That's all I got here
> 
> Jeez lady

STILL NO WITNESSES TO MALL EXPLOSION  
Rueben Davison

There have been rumours from the local hospital closest to the blast of strange events ostensibly meant to intimdate them into silence. These could not, however, be substantiated.

[Note to ed.: I think we can get away with keeping it dramatic for the paper, but maybe you'll get a good chuckle out of this too - the silencing tactics involved permanent marker goofy faces and swear words in four different languages! getting drawn on any sleeping staff that dared to use the break rooms.]

_The count of missing people has, after significant delay, been confirmed to be more than forty. Reporters who hoped to allow residents to speak of their shock and grief, however, encountered unexpected acts of sabotage: homemade projectiles were launched into each interview - stink bombs that a child acting out might make. Trauma can indeed manifest in unusual ways. Tonight we have an expert in-studio who has studied cases like that of Hawkins..._

15Aug85

> Look, Lilith, you're lucky we feel bad for you. You seem like an asshole but this thing with being terrified they're gonna (who IS 'they', anyway?!) scrub your name from your diary seems like the paranoia is on another level. We were going to make a bunch of entries you didn't write, starting from the time you arrived here. It would have been spooky. Maybe with blood spatter as a special effect. But the popular vote is that we don't want to drive anyone over the deep end. Democracy! We're sticking with it! No question!
> 
> We have details for a guy you could talk to that could either help you figure out what you need to know, or scare you off the whole paranoia thing by example. The contact details are in that oak out front where you keep your stash of extra pens for some reason. They will lead you to more contact details until eventually the guy gets over himself and answers the door in his bathrobe - you've been warned! Codename Bald Eagle.
> 
> PS: SOME of us feel bad for you. ~~The rest~~ DEFINITELY ONE of us, the most SENSIBLE one, wants you to GET OUT OF TOWN FOR EVER. Getting out of the state is a damn decent start. And so is letting the door hit ya on the way out.

* * *

  
  
Erica cycled to Dustin's house and told him, "Lucas told me about everything that happened.

"Including that you went and investigated it all _without me!_ "

Knowing her rights as she did, Erica demanded a fair trial before her Scoops Troop peers. She did this two feet away from the counter of Family Video so as to give no illusion that she was willing to lower her voice, in the middle of the working day, on a Friday where a lot of people were popping in quick to get something to watch over the weekend. Dustin only caught up to her on his bike after she'd been in the shop for five minutes, and then dashed Robin and Steve's hopes when he winced at their demands to back them up.

"I mean," he said, refreshing himself with candy from the bowl on the counter, "maybe she has a point. It does majorly suck to be left out."

"Language, young man," the current customer snapped, throwing the Scoops Troop completely off.

"What, that's all it takes?" Steve said, baffled. "Have you heard Henderson when he gets going?"

"Indeed," Keith intoned. "Junior Assistant Harrington. Could you help the louder customers present somewhere else? Hey, Senior Assistant Buckley! Does he really require your presence just to --" He sighed.

The break room door closed.

Dustin broke it to the older two: "I'm with Erica. She makes a point! There are serious opportunities here. Like, oh, hey, oh my God!--Nothing."

Dustin said the words in rapid succession, triumph to innocence.

"That's not going to work, buddy," Steve said, slapping him on the back.

"Look, I just thought ..." He wrung his hat in both hands and plunged on. "I could return my library books. Um. Before the fines broke double digits and they made up that wanted poster for me! It's ridiculous, and they're one of the best sources we have when research gets necessary, and if you think about it they're standing in the way of saving _the world_!"

None of this stopped Steve from laughing into his hands. "Nerd. The most incredible nerd."

"A wanted poster? Really?" Robin said, chuckling herself.

"Yeah, well, I think it was--"

"An art project," said Erica. "There were all sorts of photos to choose from, so you could make them look 'historic'. The library runs stuff like that sometimes for kids. _And._ " Her voice went vicious on the last word. All attention snapped to her. She had her arms crossed, and hopped off her perch on the wobbly break room table.

"That is the least important thing we could possibly be talking about. I know what we can use the wacko time travel air for. I want all those no-good, idiotic, grubby bunch of newshounds and gossips and weirdos out of Hawkins!"

As it turned out, that was hard to argue with.


End file.
